Segregation

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the cost of facilitating segregation between Loyalist and Republican prisoners has been in the last 10 years; and what estimate he has made of future costs to maintain the system. [161682]

The operation of segregated and normal regimes has not been costed separately over the last 10 years. The Prison Service expects to incur £9.5 million in additional resource expenditure during 2004–05 in order to accommodate the separation of Loyalist and Republican prisoners.